Maghrabi was Minister of Housing in Egypt from December 2005 to 2010, under Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif.[2] Prior to that he was Tourism Minister from 1999.[3] He was formerly CEO of the French company Accor and his family owns the Palm Hill Corporation, real estate developers that are part of the Mansour & Maghrabi Investment Company.[4] His cousins Yasseen Mansour, Mohamed Mansour, and Youssef Mansour were listed on Forbes'The World's Billionaires 2011,[5] and his brother Sherif Ameen El-Maghrabi was chairman of the board of Guezira Hotels & Tourism until 2011.[6]

In early February 2011 Maghrabi was accused, along with his cousins, of profiteering, wasting public money and seizing state land following a cabinet purge by then President Hosni Mubarak as part of a series of trials following the Egyptian revolution and held in Tora Prison.[7][5] He was cleared of corruption charges in 2012 (overturning an earlier verdict) and 2013, but remained in custody due to additional charges.[4] His 2013 acquittal was appealed by the prosecution, but upheld in 2015.[8]